Voicely

Proximity voice chat on servers that don't run Simple Voice Chat.

Run a voice server  ·  Simple Voice Chat (required)

What it does

Most servers don't run Simple Voice Chat, so the mod sits installed and unused. Voicely fills that gap. When you join a server with no voice chat of its own, Voicely connects your Simple Voice Chat client to a voice server instead, and proximity voice works as it normally would. You hear people standing near you, and their voices fade as they walk away.

When a server does run Simple Voice Chat, Voicely stays out of the way and changes nothing.

Everyone who wants to talk needs the mod installed. The server itself needs nothing installed, and does not need to know Voicely exists.

Requirements

Voicely does not replace Simple Voice Chat, modify it, or ship any part of it.

Features

Proximity voice anywhere. Works on servers that have no voice chat installed, including networks that move you between servers.

Groups. Create or join a group, with an optional password, to talk to a set of people regardless of distance.

Server picker. Choose which voice server to use, including community-run ones. Only servers that responded recently are listed, so anything you can't see is currently down.

Microphone badge. A small icon beside the names of other people using Voicely, in chat and in the player list. You can hide everyone else's, or hide your own from them.

Settings on K, or through your mod menu.

Supported versions

Testing status

This is an alpha release and the testing behind it is uneven. The detail below is worth reading before you install it.

1.21.x has been used in live sessions on a large network, covering voice between two players, groups, badges and switching between servers.

1.17.1 through 1.20.6 are verified to launch, load and initialise on every listed version, and the voice connection has been confirmed end to end on 1.20.1. These versions have had considerably less real use than 1.21.

Forge and NeoForge builds are compiled and checked but have not been launch-tested. Fabric has received the majority of the attention so far.

Coverage will be widened in later releases as far as is practical. If something breaks, a log file is far more useful than a description, since it names the Minecraft version, the loader and the voice server that was contacted.

Running your own voice server

Anyone can run a voice server and have it listed in the in-game server picker. It is one jar, one open UDP port, and a submission form. Your server carries voice traffic only. It never sees Minecraft accounts, passwords, or anything about the Minecraft servers your players are on.

Requirements

• A machine reachable from the internet. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is the recommended and best-tested platform. A small VPS is sufficient, since the server uses roughly 70 MB of memory and very little CPU.
• Java 21 or newer.
• One UDP port open, 24455 by default. Voice traffic is UDP. If only TCP is open, players will connect and hear nothing.

1. Install Java and download the server

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y openjdk-21-jre-headless
sudo mkdir -p /opt/voicely && cd /opt/voicely
sudo curl -LO https://voicely.nulz.app/download/voicely-community.jar

2. Generate a key and start it

java -jar voicely-community.jar --secret=$(openssl rand -hex 16)

The server prints the secret it is using. Save that value and pass the same one every time it starts. It is the encryption key for your server, and changing it disconnects everyone.

java -jar voicely-community.jar --secret=YOUR_SECRET_HERE

3. Open the port

sudo ufw allow 24455/udp

Check your hosting provider's control panel as well. Many providers run a separate firewall in front of the machine.

4. Submit it for listing

Go to https://voicely.nulz.app/submit and enter your address and port.

Your server is checked immediately. If it answers, it is listed straight away. There is no queue and no manual approval. If it does not answer, it is retried every hour and lists itself as soon as it responds. A server that stays offline for seven days is removed from the list.

You are given an admin key on submission. It is shown once and stored only as a hash, so save it somewhere safe. It cannot be recovered, and losing it means submitting again. Use it at https://voicely.nulz.app/server to rename your server, set a password, pause the listing, allow or block unverified accounts, and see who is connected.

To keep the server running after you log out, use a systemd service rather than a terminal session. Full instructions are in COMMUNITY-SETUP.md in the repository.

Known limitations

• Forge is available for 1.21.10 only. NeoForge is available for 1.21.1 and 1.21.10 only.
• On 1.17.1 and 1.19.4, the newest available Simple Voice Chat predates the version Voicely is built against. These two are the most likely to behave differently from the rest.
• Audio quality, and behaviour on networks that move players between servers frequently, have had limited testing.

Credits

Simple Voice Chat is created by Henkelmax. Voicely is an independent addon, is not affiliated with or endorsed by that project, and contains none of its code. It uses the plugin API that Simple Voice Chat provides.